from the rollin'-with-reddit dept

As more and more artists and entertainers come to understand that the old gatekeepers of culture are finding themselves without any gates to keep, the opportunities continue to expand. Such is the story of Zach Anner, a comedian who briefly had a show on Oprah's OWN network. Anner was born with cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair to get around. His show, which involved him traveling around the country experiencing different locations and interacting with people, won an OWN network contest largely due to the Reddit community's votes. Where the story used to end was in the show's cancellation after only six episodes.

What's more, Anner is going in hard connecting with his fans. The show's tagline is "Do you have an Internet? Then you can be part of it!"

"Anner and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian developed a plan to use the site to make Riding Shotgun a much more participatory endeavor than other shows. Last month, Reddit users helped Anner select the cities the series will visit. Now Anner’s using his official Subreddit to collect ideas of what to do in each city. He’s even using Reddit to crowdfund gas for the road."

The end result is Riding Shotgun will continue to be made and his fans will get to be directly involved and invested. So, we have an example of the old gatekeepers failing to keep a show available, while a new model for the business of a television show is succeeding. We'll have to see how this works out long term, but it's heartening when the internet helps culture win out in the end.